The Caller

The Caller wastes no time getting started. The first creepy phone call comes in the first five minutes, and its a beaut. Rose (Lorna Raver), the voice on the other end, thinks Mary (Rachelle Lefevbre) is one of her boyfriend's side dishes. She also thinks it's September 4, 1979. Almost-divorced Mary, who's just moved into a spacious but shabby apartment in a building that's obviously seen better days, thinks Rose is nuts, but more phone calls follow and Rose provides something she calls proof.

What's going on? Is Rose really a voice from the past, a ghost? She grows increasingly malignant, so maybe she's in league with Mary's abusive, never-let-go husband (Ed Quinn). Maybe Mary is mad, or a ghost herself. The smart script opens up all these possibilities without overplaying any of them.

Lefevbre and the rest of the cast, including Stephen Moyer as Mary's new boyfriend and Luis Guzmán as a gardener, give the material a straightforward treatment that adds to the plausibility and chills. Raver, who's almost never seen, does an outstanding job of creating character with voice alone.

Director Matthew Parkhill provides an edgy, claustrophobic atmosphere and a sense that Mary is always being watched with damped-down greens and yellows, restless camerawork and some interesting play with focus and composition. The unusual location, though not conventionally scary, also contributes to the general unease. He tells us how he found it during an excellent 25-minute interview.